Get Some Global Tech Facts

Technology is spreading at a faster pace than ever before, especially new technologies such as mobile phones, computers and the Internet.

For example, when telephone and telegram services were invented in the 19th century, it took almost 100 years for them to reach 80% of the countries.

Yet in just some 25 years since mobile phones, personal computers and cable television came into existence, they have become available in 80% of the countries.

Mobile Phones

• Today, mobile phones are as common in poor countries as they were in rich countries in 1995.
• There were 1.9 billion net additional mobile cellular subscriptions globally between the end of 2006 and 2009. Over 1.6 billion of these were in the developing world, compared to fewer than 300 million in the developed world
• Today 90% of the world’s population is now covered by a mobile cellular network.
• African mobile market is fastest growing in the world. 295 million people in Africa have cell phones, compared to 12 million landline phone subscribers.
• Countries in Latin America and East Asia have fewer than 30 landlines per 100 people, while Africa has fewer than 5 lines per 100 people.

Internet and Computers

• Most Internet growth is coming from the developing world, which accounted for 600 million of the 777 million new Internet users between the end of 2005 and the end of 2009..
• In 2009, over a quarter of the world’s population – or 1.9 billion people – have access to a computer at home.
• Least Developed Countries (LDCs) now have basic access to the Internet – but growth rates and access speeds are still nowhere near fast enough, especially in the developing world. At the end of 2008, there was just one fixed broadband subscriber in Africa per thousand people.
• One of the main reasons for this glaring inequality is the massive disparity not just in the price but the affordability of a broadband connection. Broadband subscriptions cost over 100% of GNI per capita in many LDCs. The good news is that the construction of Africa's largest undersea fibre-optic broadband cable, the East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy), has been completed - paving the way for improved internet connectivity between the continent and the rest of the world.